Mat 8, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



671 



advocate. It would be folly even for a 

 strong school to push this principle equally 

 in all departments. A curriculum is a road 

 or a race track. Road materials are quite 

 different in central Illinois from those 

 which abound in New England. Bear this 

 crude analogy in mind. 



The school revising its curriculum should 

 avoid all possibility of allowing this impor- 

 tant function to deteriorate into a contest 

 for teaching time. Such a procedure loses 

 sight of the principles involved and the ob- 

 jects to be sought. Consequently, curricu- 

 lum revision must be approached with care 

 and carried forward with tact and open- 

 mindedness. Our recent experience at Min- 

 nesota is perhaps illuminating. The com- 

 mittee on revision was composed of three 

 men only. These men studied conditions 

 thoroughly and were able to speak with au- 

 thority concerning conditions in our school 

 and elsewhere. They studied the educa- 

 tional and pedagogical problems involved. 

 This committee did not overwhelm the fac- 

 ulty by bringing in a complete report at one 

 time. It first secured the approval of the 

 faculty for certain general principles such 

 as (a) "The necessity of limiting the 

 scheduled work to about thirty hours a week 

 or about 4,000 hours for the course." (6) 

 "The necessity of clinic clerkships as a re- 

 quired part of the senior schedule." (c) 

 ' ' The desirability of elasticity to meet indi- 

 vidual preparation, abilities and needs of 

 students. ' ' The individual members of the 

 faculty, recognizing the validity of these 

 educational policies, approached the pro- 

 posal to decrease their hours in excellent 

 spirit. Consultations of departments with 

 the curriculum committee led to practical 

 unanimity of opinion on details ; and when 

 the final report was presented to the faculty, 

 approval was quickly secured. 



Gentlemen of the association, you have 

 listened well. Probably you got into the 



habit when you sat upon the benches as 

 medical students. Probably, like the stu- 

 dents of this day, of whom we are dealing, 

 you learned to "let it go in at one ear and 

 out at the other. ' ' Is our lamentable abil- 

 ity to hear and forget due to something like 

 interference of sound, some mental process 

 by which the impressions from one ear 

 annihilate those from the other? Or is it 

 rather true that we are only to be jarred 

 from our complacent forgetfulness, our 

 nonchalant do-nothingness, by something 

 unusual ? I think the latter, at any rate, is 

 a fact; and I am going to risk the dignity 

 of the presidency and hang the moral of my 

 previous remarks on some lines copied from 

 the back of a seat in the amphitheater of 

 one of our medical schools, where they had 

 been scratched in the varnish by some med- 

 ical student, departed and forgotten: 

 Talk, Talk, Talk, 

 Till my ears are split by the din. 

 Sit, Sit, Sit, 



Till my pelvis sticks through the skin. 

 In eHnic and lecture and quiz 

 I wear out my pants to the seam. 

 Till over the benches I fall asleep 

 And wear 'em out in my dream. 



You laugh! But really are not these 

 doggerel verses as pregnant with pity as the 

 ' ' Song of the Shirt ' ' ? Are they not as full 

 of meaning for us as were the words of 

 Hood for callous wealth and heedless gov- 

 ernment in poverty-stricken London? 



The plaint of the student we have heard 

 before, delivered in more dignified but less 

 expressive form by speakers on this floor. 

 Our students are overcrowded. They have 

 no time to think. They do not think. Their 

 individual qualities are crushed. They are 

 made to conform to a common mould. The 

 curriculum is largely responsible. We are 

 responsible for the curriculum. 



We make the usual specious arguments. 

 The students are poorly prepared. The 

 time of the course is too short. There is so 



